The present invention relates to a new improved construction of machine for the transverse folding of dough band sections.
Real sheet-like dough can be formed, as is known, in that a fatted or greased plate or a grease-flour mixture is introduced between an upper situated and lower situated dough band section, and this combination is rolled-out and folded, whereafter this rolling-out and folding operation is repeated a number of times. The thus obtained sheet-like dough is in the form of a laminate which consists of a great number of very thin dough layers and fat layers.
During the partial or completely manual performance of this production process it has been found suitable to carry out the folding operation such that two end portions of a band section are folded about transverse fold lines to a middle portion of approximately the same length, and which procedure is conventionally referred to in the art as "laminating." Among other things this has the advantage that the rolling-out operation can be carried out at a conventional rolling device and also the further advantage that at the fold lines, during the rolling-out operation, there cannot be squeezed out any of the fat or the like.
Conventional prior art dough band folding machines, for instance as taught in the German Patent Publication 1,150,936 or the British Patent Publication 1,059,979 which place onto a conveyor belt or band a random length of dough band in a zig-zag fold, cannot be used for the "lamination" operation. It is also to be taken into account that such dough band packages which are formed by multiple zig-zag layers cannot be rolled-down at one time to the thickness of the dough band, since otherwise the dough band experiences impermissively high tensional stresses and therefore ruptures.
Equally, it is of course not possible for the aforementioned purpose to use, for instance, machines which roll together into a simple laminate band two dough bands, between which there is strewn-in a fat-flour mixture, and to cut such into short sections and to deposit the latter in a roof-shingle arrangement or fish-scale arrangement upon an endless conveyor.